We need to consider when talking about web host the different types of servers as well as databases and email and FTP. So at this point you have the server, the name, the amount of space, and the quantity of bandwidth per month, so now we will look at the type of server your site is hosted on.

Server Types

When we talk about server type we are usually talking about the operating system that the server is running on. Some of the more common types of servers are Windows, Linux, Apache and UNIX. One of the primary differences between the different types of servers is that Windows servers tend to be on the more expensive side as opposed to Linux and UNIX servers. But, the money you will spend up front will be well spent in the long end.

Email

Now we have got you all the things you need to get going so far, the next thing that we need to talk about is email. In the world we live in today it is of vital importance that you have an email account. If you want to run a successful surf board business then you will need to have an email account to effectively do business. Most of your free accounts will not offer email accounts, therefore you may have to purchase an add on plan that will give you access to email. Many of the dedicated servers will give you several email boxes that range from 10 to an unlimited number of accounts.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

FTP is commonly used to transport files up to a server, hence the name File Transfer Protocol. Pretty much if a host does not offer FTP then your life will be exceptionally hard in getting your files uploaded to the server.

Up-time

Now we come to the end of the road as we have discussed all the services that you need to have a successful website, now comes the part where we discuss the two most important aspects, up-time and price. A beautiful website is of no use if it is not able to be seen by the rest of the world due to the server being down. Keep this in mind no server stays up 100{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} of the time, there will be times that the server has to be down for system maintenance. A server that has an up-time of around 90{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7}-99{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} is considered acceptable.

Price

The last thing that we need to discuss is of course how much is all this going to cost you. That all depends on the number of services that we discussed earlier you want to include in you plan. If you want just a hobby site then go with a free hosting. If you want to make your surf board business the best one around then use a dedicated server which will vary in price again it’s all about the features you want. I hope these articles have been helpful and informative in the aspect of getting you a web site and a place to host it at.

There are many web hosts to choose from these days as the market is getting stiffer by the day and hosting companies are trying to promote their services as much as they can. However, hosting plans can be mainly divided into free web hosts and paid web hosts. These hosting plans are self-explanatory by just looking at their names. If you are a budding webmaster, this article would be of utmost use in helping you understand what web hosting is.

Paid hosting comes in all sorts of packages. The prices depend largely on the services provided and the features offered. For instance, a dedicated server would be the top choice for professional websites, especially those designed for business purposes. With a dedicated server, you would be the sole user in that server and all resources would be at your disposal.

Shared hosting on the other hand can be considered as the most popular choice amongst Internet users, largely due to the inexpensive fees. For this hosting plan, many users come under a single server and all the websites would be sharing the available resources amongst themselves.

There are quite a number of advantages that you can procure from hosting packages. You would be provided with your own web space to store all your data and files. You can get them uploaded to your website any time you wish. And what’s more, web hosts usually provide more than enough disc space for your daily use. To be frank, the more expensive the package, the more disc space you would be offered.

Another perk from hosting is that you would be provided with your own free e-mail. Your e-mail address would correspond to your website’s name. Bear in mind that presenting yourself in such a way would convince visiting users your professionalism. This element is vital if you are running an online business as first impression play a huge role in closing deals in the future.

Furthermore, bandwidth comes with the package where web hosting is concerned. A larger bandwidth allows larger amounts of information to be transferred through the Internet. Please understand that this feature plays an important role if you website is loaded with lots of images, photos or videos. Without sufficient bandwidth, incoming Internet users would find themselves waiting for ages just to load a single file.

In summary, web hosting is a must if you are interested in creating a website of your own. After reading through the article above, I’m sure that you have quite an idea of what to expect from web hosting.

Are you confused about web hosting. If you don’t understand the terms used on web hosting sites then these descriptions of terms will help in part 3 of this series.

FTP Account:

FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol” and is a term used to describe the transfer of files to your server. In order for you to have a website on the internet, you need a series of files that make up your website and unless you are using a website builder, you will need to upload files from your computer, on to the server you have paid for.

To transfer files to your server you will need an “FTP Client” such as my favourite software called “FileZilla”, if you search on Google you will find this. In order to access your server, you will need the ftp server address, username and password of your hosting account. You can find these in the welcome email that will be sent to your after purchase of your hosting, or can be accessed within your control panel.

Once you have connected, you will see several windows in FileZilla that display the files on your personal computer, just browse through the files to find your website and then right click and press upload. Ensure that you don’t upload you website inside of a file, you must upload the several files directly inside the public_html folder found on your server, this will then allow your domain to access the files and display your website correctly.

A service or technique that provides you the facility of getting your own space on the internet and getting your web site or web page published there is known as web hosting. Once you get the space on the net after that you can upload any file like music file, video or an image that too in any format, but keeping in mind the space you have got on the internet.

As we all are aware of the fact that internet is becoming major source of the economy today, every company and big business tycoons are entering to the world of internet. Many of the transactions are now done online, by this both the time and money is saved. Person sitting in India can send or receive money from anywhere in the world and all this has become possible only because of web hosting.

People or companies that are in need of a web host should be careful before hiring the website company. It is not an easy decision to make to choose good website host as there are many options available in the market. User is required to do some task before getting to any conclusion. To get a hold over the market companies provide many attractive offers to the users to trap them.

There are mainly two types of companies, free hosts and one that is paid. Obviously a new comer will first consider the free web hosting companies, after all he will get a free service, but it is not such. It is always recommended to hire a paid web host if you are seriously in a mood of making a web site that will be profitable for your business.

First we will talk about free web companies so that you may come to know why it can be a wrong decision for you to hire a free host. A website host that is providing you a free service might not charge you as the service is for free but what he will do is display the advertisement on your website which becomes the source of earning for the service provider. You remain in a false impression that the company is providing you free service and making your web site for free, also posting it on internet by providing you space. Beside this company befools you in many other ways, they provide you less bandwidth, because of which the traffic on your site is very less. No customer support is given by the free web hosts.

Now let’s come on to the paid web hosting companies. Paid web companies will of course charge you but will provide you the quality service. They will provide you a good bandwidth rate which will of 50 MB for personal and 500 MB for the small companies as there is no sense for paying more than what you use. The paid service provider will provide you the best service by customer support which is most important for the customer, as in the case of emergency lots time gets saved if the problem is solved online.

Looking for basic information about web hosting for beginners is not difficult. In fact, you can find it all over the web. There are thousands of websites that have information that can give you the basics you need however, this can actually breed a whole wealth of questions all on its own.

For example, is the information still valid? Technology is changing at an almost frightening rate, the computer you buy today a year from now may be considered completely outdated. The same goes with the web. The way that business is done from simple websites to websites, where you can interact using your wireless device exist and staying competitive is not as easy as it once was.

The question becomes how to sort through this vast amount of data to find the information that you are looking for and that is specific for your particular needs. There are a few basics that you should know about web hosting that can help you to determine if the information you are looking for is something to put in the to be read or worthwhile pile.

Web hosting involves a number of factors; these include features, operating system, and bandwidth, memory, back up, up time and down time. Features can include everything from being able to handle multiple platforms to being able to handle multiple styles of emails, form letters, or internet marketing strategies. Operating systems usually involve Unix, Linux or Windows. Hosting can also include FrontPage, which is a Windows based web creation, editing and management tool.

The most basic information about web hosting for beginners is that you want to make sure that the host you pick is going to be able to grow with you. You do not want to have to shift your host. This means that you are going to want features that show the latest innovations while still being compatible with older versions and models.

You are also going to want to give serious considerations to up and down times. Maintenance is a necessity but your entire site should not be down. It should switch to redundancy servers or a backup server while repairs are being made in order to ensure that your website has availability 24/7.

Cost is another large factor and one of the basics when it comes to web hosting. In a number of cases, you get what you pay for but that is not always the case when it comes to web hosting. There are a number of companies out there that can provide you with what you need and all the features you could ask for or want all for less.

Basic information about web hosting for beginners can be found anywhere on the net. The questions then become how valuable the information is to you and how much of it you can use. It is important to keep the basics such as cost, bandwidth, size and memory in mind when looking to create a permanent home for your website. Take the time to research the ratings for web hosts as well. It is one of the most basic tools that any individual looking to do business on the web can have. Ratings are usually done by users and when it comes to web hosting usability is essential.

There are many unrevealed things in the hosting industry which 99{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} of webmasters never heard — until they order hosting package and find out that there are some problems with their website. This article will show you what you need to know about web hosting in order to make the right choice.

1. You don’t need to buy separate hosting account for every website
There are some web hosting companies which allow to host multiple websites under one account in these days. Most webmasters start with single domain and don’t plan to run multiple websites. However, a lot of them comes with a good idea in the future and they want to build up a new website. For this reason, it is a very good idea to make sure that the hosting company where you want to buy the hosting plan allows multiple domain names or if they allow to upgrade to hosting plan which allows that.

2. It is not necessary to hire web designer if you choose the right web hosting
Some companies provide clients with website builder which allows to build up a website using preinstalled templates. Another way how to avoid hiring a web designer is using a hosting service which offers preinstalled PHP scipts. Scripts like WordPress allow you to run a website without hiring a web designer.

3. You don’t need to buy VPS to change the PHP settings
Most companies will try to sell you expensive VPS if you want to change your PHP settings. Instead of spending money for VPS try to find hosting provider which allows to change the PHP setting in the shared plans using control panel.

You may be thinking about designing and building your own website, or already have a design done. Either way you are probably wondering about the next step in getting a website up on the internet.

You have several choices, but learning how the web works and a few basic terms will make it easier to decide what to do next.

What is the World Wide Web
You’ve seen it, you’ve used it, we all love it and one thing’s for certain, the internet is here to stay!

But what is the internet exactly? Other than a mythical ether available at home, in coffee shops, phones and seemingly everywhere else in our lives? Let’s take a look under the hood.

The internet is a network of computers that spans the entire globe. All computers in the network can communicate with each other using a communication standard called HTTP. Web information is stored in documents called web pages which are stored on computers called web servers. When your computer connects to a web server (via HTTP) it becomes what is called a web client. The program you use to view web pages, whether Firefox, Internet Explorer, Oprah or Safari is called a web browser.

How it Works (basically)
In a nutshell, a web browser sends a request to view the web page to a web server. The request is sent in a special format called HTTP. All web pages use special code that is basically a bunch of instructions that tell the web browser how the page should be displayed. The most commonly used display instructions are called HTML tags.

The web server is in simple terms, a collection of web pages and other files made available to the public. To make your page available on the internet you must place it on a public web server.

The most common way of doing this is to use a professional web hosting company, but there are other ways too.

The Domain Name – Your Own Unique Internet Address
A domain name is a unique address that every website must have to identify themselves on the internet. It’s like a phone number, but instead of numbers in a telephone, you type it in as text into your web browser’s address bar.

When publishing a web site on the internet, you must register a domain name or have someone else assign one to you. A web hosting provider will often provide you with a free one as part of their package, otherwise you will have to register it yourself with a service like GoDaddy or Namecheap. There is a small fee for registering a domain name, usually around $10 USD.

So now you know a little bit about the way the web works, let’s look at how to make your web pages public.

Web hosting Options
We look at five common ways of publishing your site online. The one you choose will largely depend on how serious you expect your website to be.

Use your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) web space.

Host on your own computer

Use someone else’s websites that allow you to create your own content within their framework

Use a free web hosting company

Use a paid web hosting company

Using your ISP web space
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) you buy bandwidth through might also offer web space, they will often provide basic hosting as part of their service. This option is great for a personal website or for prototyping, but is usually too limited in terms of resources for a serious website.

Hosting on your own computer
It is possible to run a web server from your own personal computer using your ISP’s bandwidth. This option requires a little work setting up and good technical skills, but gives you full control and flexibility. However it will be up to you to install, configure and maintain your own software and you will need to keep your computer running 24/7. If you shut down your computer at the end of the day, your website will go down with it. When choosing this option, ensure your ISP’s terms and conditions allow it, many ISP’s frown on this practice or ban it outright.

Using someone else’s framework
Some websites facilitate content creation within their site. Some popular examples include Squidoo, Hub Pages and Google’s Knol. The advantages of these services are that you can quickly create a website for free. It will also most likely attract visitors much faster than a normal website. The disadvantage is you don’t get to use your own domain name and content expansion is limited. You are also at the mercy of the service, for instance they might close down on short notice taking your website with it.

Using a free web hosting company
These services offer a basic level of server resources, but are not guaranteed to be reliable. Essentially you get what you pay for. A free host may also require you to implement banner advertising on your web pages and usually do not allow you to use your own domain name. Using free hosting may be a good way to get started and test an idea, but are not a good option for anything beyond that.

Using a paid web hosting company
The most popular type of web hosting by far is paid web hosting with a shared plan. The advantage over a free plan is better support, 99{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} server uptime guarantee and much greater server resources in terms of bandwidth and disk storage space.

Shared hosting means you are sharing a web server with other customers and that the CPU and RAM of the server is shared among other websites. A more expensive option is dedicated web hosting, which costs more, but means you have an entire web server computer dedicated to your websites. Usually shared hosting is fine for all but the largest enterprise websites.

Your choice of hosts should be determined by the goals and size of your intended website.

If your website is small in scope and ambition, then check to see if your ISP offers hosting, or look into a free hosting package or website with dynamic content. On the other hand if you intend on having a larger, more professional web presence, then a paid, shared hosting plan is probably for you.

You surely heard about the term “domain name” if you are an average internet user. This might not mean too much for you but without web hosting and domain name registration you will surely have a hard time browsing through the internet.

The web hosting and domain name registration can be compared to how the telephone system is used be the people. One main element why we have Internet connection is the telephone. Phone lines is quite based on some electronically procedures.

You are making use of the web hosting and domain name registration when you are fond of surfing the web. The specific carrier that you are using assigns a particular number which is exclusively for you only when you order a telephone line or service.

It’s the same for the computers, which has a sequence of numbers, which is longer than the telephone numbers. The numbers assigned to you when you apply for a web hosting and domain name registration is known as the IP address and these are made unique to your computer.

IP address is known as the Internet Protocol Address. The DNS have allowed it to be replaced with names that are distinctive since memorization of these numbers may be quite a tough job. For a successful web hosting and domain name registration requires no duplicates and should be unique. You should think of it properly and wisely.

Web hosting service is a hosting service on Internet that allows the webmasters to get their web site accessed through World Wide Web. There are large number of companies that provide web space on their server for their clients and also provide Internet connectivity normally in a data center. Web site hosting companies can also provide data center space and Internet connectivity to the servers that are not located at their data centers. These are called co locations.

There can be various types of website hosting services. Free website hosting services are generally advertisement supported web site hosting service. Generally in free web site hosting all the domains share a common address followed by the website name and share the common resources such as RAM and CPU, that makes the system slow. In shared website hosting the clients web site is placed on the same server as of many other web sites and may share a common server RAM and CPU. The options and support provided in the free web site hosting and shared web site hosting services is very less compared to the paid website hosting.

In dedicated web site hosting service the user can get full control over his web server but generally do not own the server. Other form of dedicated web site hosting service is the Virtual Dedicated Server in which a number of virtual servers are created in a single server. This acts as if each user has his own dedicated server. Whereas in case of clustered web site hosting service multiple servers host the same content which results in better source utilization and better performance and traffic control on the servers.

The World Wide Web has all the information stored in the form of web pages that in turn are residing in the web servers. These servers are of different kinds and capacities. The hosting companies own these servers and rent out the server space for money. The client who buys this server space can now put his information or data that he wants to make available on World Wide Web in this server space. For web hosting suitable hardware and software are also required. The user also needs to register a domain name or the web site name so that his contents are available under a unique web address. Web hosting companies may also provide with data center space and Internet connectivity.

Web hosting companies are providing the users with a cyber space to put their web content on it. Now days the competition between the web space providers have brought down the cost to very nominal levels. All that the user has to do is to become the member and pay the fee, and the provider will give the key to the cyber space on his server in form of username and password.

Once the hosting companies give the charge to the users in form of user name and password, the space buyer can log on using its username and password and upload his contents to the cyber world to be accessed by all.

Apart from just giving the users some cyber space these web hosting companies are also providing additional features to lure the space buyers. These companies are providing with technical support and sometimes a well structured interface in which the user can make his web contents and upload to the server in very user friendly way. Also the companies provide with email support so that the user can use his domain to receive and send emails.

For your site to be visible online you need to host it. While plenty has been said about web hosting, studies show that few people know about the hosting plans. To help you out here is what you need to know about the issue:

No two hosting companies are the same

Different companies offer different services and hosting plans. They also charge different prices for their plans. When you are searching for a hosting company for your site you should take your time to find the one that will provide you with the service that you are looking for. Your choice should be informed by the type of content that you will use on your site and the amount of traffic that you expect to get. If you are going to use videos and expect hundreds of thousands of people to visit your site every month, you should go with a large hosting plan.

Good website hosting isn’t always expensive

In most cases, you get what you pay for. This isn’t always the case with web hosting. Sometimes, the different hosting companies behave like sunglasses companies that inflate their prices so that the consumer can pay for the name or brand. Most of the popular hosting companies charge extremely high prices for their services but their services aren’t any better.

It’s good to work with popular and established companies but if you don’t have a lot of money you shouldn’t stress yourself over it as there are many cheaper companies that are equally good (if not better) than the established brands. You should take your time to find the features offered in the cheaper options and go with the company offering the best services at affordable prices.

Free hosting isn’t the best

Humans love free things but you shouldn’t go that way when it comes to web hosting. Since the company is providing a free service, it’s rare that it will have a support team ready to help you with your problems. This puts you in distress in the event you encounter a problem with your web hosting company. It’s also rare that a free hosting company will have a community where you can find answers to your questions and share your experiences.